The present invention relates to a method for taking out a batch of packaged articles from a large-sized tray housing a multiplicity of packaged articles and conveying them in a predetermined direction, and to an apparatus for executing the method.
When a multiplicity of packaged products or packaged articles housed in a large-sized tray are conveyed to a warehouse, a system installed in the warehouse operates to take out these individual packaged articles from the tray onto the conveyer line, recycle the tray, sort the packaged articles by kind or type from the conveyer line to branch conveyers, attach a price tag to each article, and box the packages. Generally used system is such that a catching robot turns over the large-sized tray to release individual packaged articles in the tray onto a floor and workers on stand start to assort the packages. As more efficient means, there is another system in which when a large-sized tray with packaged articles housed in a stacked fashion inside the tray halts at a specified position, a group of a multiplicity of vacuum cups descend from an upper location of the tray into the tray several times to suck the multiplicity of packaged articles housed therein to successively carry them out onto the conveyer line. It is only seldom but some of the vacuum cups, however, fail to properly suck the packaged articles due to distortion or surface unevenness of the articles, causing one or more articles to be left behind in the large-sized tray. Further, if the packaged articles are stacked in several tiers in the large-sized tray, all the packaged articles cannot be taken out at a time. Thus, the system has a problem of inefficiency in one aspect.
In order to take out many packaged articles out of a large-sized tray efficiently and free of mistakes, the present invention comprises: a pair of side plates integrally rotating around a horizontal traverse main shaft as a support shaft; a pair of support conveyers arranged to extend at an upper location and a lower location with respect to the main shaft, each bridging between the side plates; a pair of support plates disposed between the side plates and opposing the pair of support conveyers respectively; means for conveying a tray from outside into a space between the lower support conveyer and a pair of rails fixed to the inner surfaces of the side plates; an actuator for pushing the support plate into the tray to press the packaged articles inside the tray while the side plates rotate for 180 degrees and thereafter lowering the support plate together with the packaged articles to the outside of an upside-down tray at an upper halt position; means for discharging outside the upside-down tray along the rail with the packaged articles supported on the support plate being left behind; means for rotating the side plate for 180 degrees while pushing the packaged articles on a support plate to the upper support conveyer by means of the actuator after the upside-down tray has been discharged; and means for conveying outside the packaged articles returned to a lower area by the rotation of the support conveyer.
According to the above described apparatus, when the packaged articles housed in a tray are conveyed into the support conveyer at the lower location, a support plate descends onto each tray and the tray rotates for 180 degrees with the support plate pressing thereon. Then, the tray is conveyed to an upper area, while the support plate presses the packaged articles to prevent them from scattering. And the packaged articles are loaded on the support plate at the upper area and lowered as if drawn out from a large-sized tray. After the emptied tray is discharged outside, the packaged articles are raised to be pressed to the support conveyer at the upper location and returned to the lower area. In brief, even packaged articles stacked in many tiers inside the tray can be batch-processed collectively with high efficiency. In addition, mistakes included in the processing can be minimized as compared to those occurring in the processing using vacuum cups.